<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
+ <item>
+ <title>The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 5 Jul 2013 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
+for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>. Unfortunately I did not have much
+time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
+will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived. I
+ended up picking a
+<a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
+with SSD disk (NZDAJMN). I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
+a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly. But my
+second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful. More
+on that below.</p>
+
+<p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
+important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
+listed in the feature list. But I did get good help from the search
+feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
+allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
+requirements. A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
+to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
+disks from my search parameters. I also asked around among friends to
+get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
+
+<p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
+X41. I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
+significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
+hand a lot more to reach the edges. But the key response is fairly
+good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
+I will get used to it. My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
+needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
+
+<p>Turning off the touch pad was simple. All it took was a quick
+visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
+
+<p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop. The 180 GB SSD disk
+lock up during load. And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
+with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
+I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
+reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
+default in Ubuntu). And the bug with is already known. It was
+reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
+report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
+Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD). It is also reported to the Linux
+kernel developers as
+<a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
+report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
+(SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
+Lenovo forums, both for
+<a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
+2012-11-10</a> and for
+<a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
+03-20-2013</a>. The problem do not only affect installation. The
+reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
+on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
+problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
+There is even a
+<a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
+available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
+minutes by writing to a file.</p>
+
+<p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
+contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
+requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
+firmware. Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
+Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i). I
+hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
+fixed. :)</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff